Loire Valley castles are full of amazing stories. At Chateau Chenonceau you can hear ‘The future king was 12 and he took a mistress aged 32.’ The image of the castles of this area may be all towers, topiary, tapestries and faded furniture but for 200 years, these great palaces were host to world-class debauchery and countless murders.

In Chateau Blois, Henri III invited a rival to his ornate bed chamber then hid behind a curtain as twenty hired men jumped the wretch.

The chateau guide can show you the exact spot in Chateau Blois where 23 knife stabs were planted in the unfortunate Duke de Guise the head of the Catholic League, by 8 men armed with daggers and 12 with swords. You can even watch a black and white 12 minute silent movie re-enacting the murder at Chateau Blois.

Today tourists at Chateau Blois can see the 237 secret cabinets, which opened by stepping on a hidden lever, where Catherine de Medici kept her personal papers, jewels and a collection of poisons. Catherine and her son Henri III ordered the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, which began in Paris and spread throughout France, resulting in the death of some seventy thousand Protestants.

In Chinon, aristocratic ladies bunged unplanned babies down an eighty ft shaft, also the castle toilet. And it was from his balcony at Chateau Amboise that Louis XII hung Protestant dissidents.

Chateau Chenonceau has one of the most colourful pasts. Here not only did Henri II take a mistress 20 years his senior when he was 12, but Henri III also used the formal gardens for transvestite parties with his chums, ‘the Sweeties’.

Today because of cheap airfares to many exotic locations and perhaps because the curators of these celebrated castles typically ignore the colourful elements in their history these castles are chasing the tourist dollar. Now castles across the Loire Valley area are hosting additional attractions: an international annual garden festival at Chaumont, horse show at Chambord, a Tintin exhibition at Cheverny, actors in period costume and son et lumiere shows at many.

Most key castles are in the one hundred-mile stretch from Saumur to Orleans. The region around Blois is a perfect base for visiting Chambord, Cheverney, Blois, Clos Luce, Amboise, Azay-le-Rideau, Villandry, Chaumont, and our favourite Chateau Chenonceau which attracts over one million visitors each year, the most out of all of the Loire Valley castles.

It is easy to overdose on castles, so do not try and make any records by doing them all in one or two days. Two in a day is enough allowing you plenty of time for relaxing and enjoying wine-tasting at a handful of vineyards sprinkled along the banks of the Loire River.